Dear Write Readers, the end is near!
There are only three films left on the list, and The Martian is next up.
So here it begins. The sad space movies. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you’ll know that sad movies aren’t really my forte. I’m not great at watching sad movies. I get emotional, and stressed out…sad movies aren’t my thing. Neither are sad plays, sad musicals, or sad books. Basically, dealing with intense sad emotions isn’t my forte. In fact, I have an entire list of movies I intentionally avoid, and that list includes space movies, war movies, and animal movies. And every single year, a movie comes to taunt me, and force me to watch something I would typically avoid.
And here we have another one. The Martian, starring the eternally lost Matt Damon, is based on the book The Martian, written by Andy Weir. It was directed by Ridley Scott, and features some other famous people too, like Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Damon (I love you Matt, but you’re going to need to hand this one over to Leo).
Before I talk about my constant and undending love for Matt Damon, first I will tell you about what happens in this movie. Spoilers abound. You have been warned.
So the movie starts with a bunch of really excellent astronauts, the crew of the Ares III, hanging out on Mars. We see that they’re all competent, and have excellent senses of humor. However, a storm is coming, and because all astronauts ever in the history of NASA make terrible choices when on film, these astronauts want to wait it out. So they’re still on the planet when the storm hits, and somehow they decide it’s a good idea to exit the ship and go out to do something. To no one’s surprise, something goes terribly wrong. Mark Watney (Damon, clearly) is hit with some sort of flying debris, and is flung of visual range, hits something even bigger, and then his life battery thingy goes out and everyone thinks he’s dead, so although Commander Lewis (Chastain) feels ultra guilty, they leave him. Then he wakes up the next day, and discovers that he is alone, and gets to work being a botanist and science-y (my spell check is having a field day with that). This is where he gets funny. He’s alone, listening to disco, attempting to grow plants (potatoes, specifically), and says things like “science the shit out of this”. Which is obviously delightful. Back at home, Vincent Kapoor (Ejiofor), the Mars mission director, decides they need to get footage of Mars to see what kind of supplies they can salvage, and lo and behold, they have proof that Watney is alive! Actually, a satellite planner named Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) is the one who found him. So then they have to get him back, and explain to the public that they left an American citizen alive on Mars with nearly zero chance of survival. Theodore Sanders (Jeff Daniels) is the super in-charge NASA administrator, and is definitely running the show. He’s rather risk averse, which makes sense and is appreciated in all other NASA situations, like, I don’t know, getting off the planet in time to not be in the middle of a giant storm which results in people dying. Just throwing that out there.
Anyway. Everything manages to go wrong, as it does in space films. Something explodes and he loses all of his crops, which is horrible. The food resupply that’s supposed to be coming to him isn’t going to get there for a really long time, which he doesn’t really have, so there’s that. Then, they manage to get him a food re-supply, but it blows up during launch because they were trying to save time. (What happened to being risk averse?)
What do I love about this film? Oh I love so, so many things! Mostly, I love Matt Damon in this movie. And really, this movie IS Matt Damon. He’s less alone than Sandra Bullock was, but still, this is a Matt Damon solo type of film. He basically plays himself throughout the film, or at least the “himself” that we’ve seen a few times before. He’s funny, charming, quick on the uptake, and all sorts of other delightful things that we can come to expect from Damon. My favorite moments, however, are the times when he isn’t quick on the uptake but deeply emotional, like when he’s lifting off of Mars to intercept with his team at Ares III. Those are the moments that are deeply human, and those are the times when I understand why he’s been nominated for Best Actor. Also, I love that this film isn’t sad! I’m not sure I’m fully reformed to the idea that all space movies aren’t sad, but between Interstellar and The Martian, I’m not quite so gun shy. It’s a revolutionary idea- non-sad space movies! I love it.
I’d like to pause and take a moment to just say that at some point, we’re going to have to stop sending Damon out alone for things, because this man is constantly being left behind or needing to be rescued. If you’d like to read more about the cost of rescuing Damon, please check out this amusing article here: http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/29/this-is-how-much-it-would-cost-to-rescue-matt-damon-in-his-movies-5588897/.
Other things that are well done in this movie include the whole making of it, from the zero G situations, and the explosions, and all of the other cool things that happen on a spaceship, and all of the science that gets mentioned, and everything freaking else. The cast, the direction, the writing, the whole thing is delightful. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that this is an Oscar winning film. Is it a delightful film? Yes. Do I love it? Yes. But is it at the same sort of caliber to a film like Room or even Spotlight? I’m just not 100% sure. This is a good film, and we need a great film. I look forward to seeing what is going to happen on Oscar night, but I wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately, The Martian loses to one of the other films on our list.
Live, Love, Learn,
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